Court Denies Multi-State Housing Provider’s Motions to Dismiss Disability Rights Suit

Fair HousingDisability RightsUnited States v. AION Management

Mar 24

On March 18, 2025, a federal judge denied a multi-state rental housing provider’s motions to dismiss a fair housing lawsuit challenging an alleged policy of refusing to consider assigned parking spaces as a reasonable accommodation for tenants with physical disabilities.

In United States et al. v. AION Management, LLC, et al., U.S. District Judge Gregory B. Williams recognized that assigned parking spaces can allow people with mobility-related impairments to have equal access to their homes, and that a housing provider’s refusal to consider assigned parking as a reasonable accommodation may violate the federal Fair Housing Act.

The lawsuit was filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in July 2023 against AION Management, LLC, which manages rental housing communities in several states, and several affiliated entities. In November 2023, three fair housing organizations — the Fair Housing Partnership of Greater Pittsburgh (FHP), and Housing Equality Center of Pennsylvania (HECP), and National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) — moved to join the case as Plaintiffs-Intervenors. After the court granted that motion, the groups filed their complaint-in-intervention in February 2024.

The case arose from a year-long investigation of AION properties in Pennsylvania and Delaware conducted by FHP, HECP, and NFHA. As alleged in the lawsuit, AION employees at multiple properties told housing discrimination testers posing as family members of prospective tenants with mobility-related disabilities that they would not consider assigning parking spaces as a reasonable accommodation for those disabilities. Following the investigation, the groups filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In February 2023, HUD issued a charge of discrimination after determining that reasonable cause existed that AION violated the federal Fair Housing Act’s disability protections. HUD then sent the case to DOJ for litigation.

After FHP, HECP, and NFHA joined the lawsuit, AION moved to dismiss both the United States’ amended complaint and the fair housing groups’ complaint-in-intervention. In its March 18, 2025 decision, the court rejected AION’s arguments that the fair housing groups lacked standing to challenge AION’s conduct, finding that FHP, HECP, and NFHA all diverted resources away from other mission-critical fair housing work to investigate and attempt to counteract AION’s alleged discrimination.

The court further found that the United States and the fair housing groups sufficiently stated a claim that AION and the other defendants violated the Fair Housing Act in two ways: first, by refusing to make a reasonable accommodation to a person with a disability that “may be necessary to afford such person equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling,” and second, by making statements that indicated a disability-based preference, limitation, or discrimination in connection with the rental of housing.

The court, citing 2004 guidance from HUD and the Justice Department that assigned parking is a recognized reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities, concluded that the United States and fair housing groups sufficiently alleged that assigned parking “is not merely ‘preferable,’ but rather is essential ‘to afford [that person] with a disability an equal opportunity to use and enjoy the dwelling of his or her choice.’”

The case will now proceed towards trial.

Wardenski P.C., led by Joseph Wardenski, represents FHP, HECP, and NFHA as Plaintiffs-Intervenors in this case. Our former law fellow, Alexandra Vance, did substantial work on the fair housing groups’ brief opposing AION’s motion to dismiss. Plaintiffs-Intervenors are also represented by our co-counsel, Scott Chang and Morgan Williams at NFHA, and John Whitelaw of the Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. in Delaware.